SpaceX Prepares to Launch Over 100 Payloads and Two Moon Landers Within 24 Hours

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SpaceX is poised for an impressive launch schedule, bringing over one hundred satellites and two lunar landers into orbit within a 24-hour period. The action kicks off today with the Transporter 12 mission, launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. This mission aims to deliver 131 payloads to low-Earth orbit (LEO). Following this, early tomorrow morning, SpaceX will execute another mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, featuring Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander for NASA, alongside Japan’s ispace Hakuto-R lander, part of the Resilience mission aimed at sending several payloads to the Moon’s surface.

Upcoming Falcon 9 Missions: Expanding Horizons

In preparation for the much-anticipated Starship Flight 7, set to launch tomorrow, SpaceX has had an industrious start to 2025, successfully completing six missions thus far. A significant number of these missions have focused on deploying satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink internet constellation, while two Falcon 9 launches catered to distinct objectives: one delivering an Emirati telecommunications satellite to geostationary transfer orbit, and another deploying the latest batch of Starshield satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) of the Department of Defense.

Both of the imminent Falcon 9 launches are also non-Starlink operations. The first launch of the day will be the latest installment in SpaceX’s Transporter series. These rideshare missions cleverly consolidate various micro, nano, and small satellites into one single payload, making space access more resource-efficient and cost-effective. The Transporter 12 mission is set for launch early tomorrow from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base, carrying a total of 131 payloads to orbit.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 during the Transporter-1 mission, successfully launching a record 142 satellites to orbit back in 2021. Image: SpaceX

Shortly after the Vandenberg launch, SpaceX will launch from Florida a little after midnight Eastern Time, incorporating two lunar landers into its payload. The first is Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost, commissioned by NASA under its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Through this initiative, NASA partners with private companies to send various payloads to the Moon, setting the stage for the Artemis program’s goal of returning humans to the lunar surface for the first time since the Apollo missions.

The Blue Ghost will carry ten NASA payloads, encompassing a range of scientific instruments such as an X-ray imager, a lunar surface camera, an electromagnetic and magnetic field study instrument, and a resilient computer designed to withstand the harsh conditions of space radiation.

In addition to the Blue Ghost, the Florida launch will also feature ispace’s Hakuto-R Mission 2 lunar lander, known as RESILIENCE. This private lander will transport a 5-kilogram rover and various payloads, including a commemorative plate from Japanese entertainment giant Bandai Namco, alongside contributions from Taiwan’s National Central University and additional partners. The RESILIENCE mission is not only about scientific exploration but also aims to serve as a cultural artifact, featuring a UNESCO memory disk as a tribute to humanity’s shared history.

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